It’s Crunch Time
Chocolate lovers be warned. Lay’s® just introduced their Wavy Original Potato Chips Dipped in Milk Chocolate. This “brand extension” will add 240 calories to your intake if you have the discipline to only eat from their mini single-serving bag. The real trouble starts when you buy the 5-oz. (800 calorie) bags that are now available only at Target. “Betcha can’t eat just one.”
I am no teenager but I still break out every time I eat chocolate. My dermatologist says it’s not possible, but trust me, it’s true.
So I have to pick my spots (pun intended?) before I give into the temptation that is chocolate. More often than not, it’s so worth it but chocolate and potato chips give me pause.
In 1963, the advertising agency Young & Rubicam developed the “Betcha can’t eat just one” advertising campaign slogan for Lay’s Potato Chips. Bert Lahr (“The Cowardly Lion” in The Wizard of Oz ) was the commercial spokesperson.
It was a brilliant campaign because as everyone knows who loves and eats potato chips, you cannot eat just one. It’s impossible. (Let’s hear it for market research).
This phenomenon has a name designed to make you feel even more disgusted with yourself: hedonic hyperphagia. The scientific term for overeating for pleasure rather than hunger.
But hey, it’s not just you. Even the rats can’t resist chips. In laboratory studies, the pitiful rodents scurried right past the chow pellets and bolted for the chips.
Wait until they get a load of the chocolate dipped “dessert chips…”
In the weeks leading up to Lay’s new product introduction, the ABC news crew was given sample bags for an informal taste test (good PR move) and I loved this review:
“It’s like a chocolate pretzel, but worse for you, and therefore more delicious.”
This great combo of “salty, sweet and crunchy” is intended for a limited shelf life. Or so they say.
The plan is for Target to carry the ($3.49) 5-ounce bags now through the holidays. A limited-time-only distribution strategy designed to get you hooked…or not.
Lay’s is known for thoughtful test marketing. Their affinity score (a measurement of how much consumers like a brand) is the highest in the $31 billion salty snack market.
“When you try something drastically different, you have to walk before you can run,” says Ram Krishnan, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, the parent company.
This is a company that is constantly innovating and improving its products. It is always “in trend” – for both the flavors they offer (sophisticated and complex like sweet and salty) and the celebrities they have chosen as their spokespersons.
I have to believe the wavy chocolate chips have a future.
And this should make you feel better.
Potato chips were invented in 1853 by a Native American named George Crum who at the time was the chef at a Saratoga Springs, New York resort.
Rumor has it that railroad and shipping tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt pitched a fit because his French fries were too thick and soggy. The second batch George prepared was sent back to the kitchen as well.
Time to create the potato chip (no doubt mumbling obscenities under his breath).
George sliced the potatoes wafer thin (in protest), fried them to a crisp, and piled on the salt (“he expected the customer to choke and spit them out.”).
But Vanderbilt couldn’t eat just one (in fact he ordered more) and “Saratoga Chips” were immediately added to the menu.
And here’s the best part.
The creator of the potato chip lived to the ripe old age of 92.
Indulge.
